Case filed against Asaram Bapu

The Ahmedabad police on Sunday filed a case of attempt to murder against the religious leader, Asaram Bapu, and two unknown persons on a complaint by a former disciple of the saint.

A local businessman, Raju Chandok, named Asaram Bapu to be behind the attempt to shoot him dead when he was returning to his home in Sabarmati locality late last night. According to reports, three shots were fired at him by two gunmen but he escaped narrowly with only minor injuries.

In a statement before the police from his hospital bed where he was admitted following the firing last night, Mr Chandok alleged that ever since he quit Asaram Bapu’s ashram some eight years after “realizing the true nature of the saint,” several attempts were made on his life. He alleged that last night’s firing was at the behest of the saint against whom he had taken up cudgels.

It was the first time that Asaram Bapu was personally named in connection with a criminal activity and a case registered against him. Even in connection with the mysterious death of two children in his ashram-run school last year, Deepesh and Abhishek, for which cases were registered against seven “sadhaks” of the ashram and some of his followers, Asaram Bapu was personally not implicated.